It took months but I finally found someone I know personally who supports Hillary Clinton – a military contractor. His motto is “Vote Hillary or Else!”
Everyone else? They are looking at Edwards or maybe Obama. Yet for Obama they tend to sneak in the caveat of “I still don’t know what he stands for. Unless he clear that up soon, I will be supporting Edwards.” Also, support for those two slips away if Al Gore kicks his hat in the ring.
The other problem that continues to swirl around people I know is that of “getting out the vote.” If Hillary does win the nomination, everyone I know will vote for her, but there is not a lot of volunteerism being vocalized. No where near the level that I saw in the 2006 mid-term election. The 2006 GOTV movement was huge, larger than I have seen since back in my Perot days. There is something about Hillary that just doesn’t encourage folks hitting the street and getting the word out for her. And if her GOTV is weak, it will influence the GOTV for the House and Senate races that will be VITAL in 2008.
Vital.
Yes, people will vote for her, but while holding their noses. That kinda attitude does not drive people to blow all their weekends knocking on doors, enduring cold November rains to had out brochures at polls or spend hours away from the family at a phone bank begging people to “Vote Hillary or Else.”
You don’t see that with John Edwards.
If you look past the polls, Edwards is the leader on the issues. I would say he is dragging the rest of the field with him.
From AlterNet:
“I don’t need to read a poll, I don’t need to see a focus group and I don’t need to see what the other candidates are saying,” said Mr. Edwards, sitting next to his wife in a blue van pulling away from Kitty’s Fine Foods in Charleston. “I know exactly what I would do as president and that’s why I have been leading on these issues. And it is exactly the kind of leadership I will provide as president.”
Mr. Edwards and his campaign are rallying around the idea that he has demonstrated leadership by getting out front early on major issues, advocating “big change” and then almost daring his rivals to follow his example.
When he challenges other candidates to raise the minimum wage, he gets thunderous applause. Other candidates get that level of applause, but only when they snark off about Bush.
Edwards all seems to be revamping his campaign. Gone are the button-down, adviser steered campaign days of 2004, Edwards has placed himself in the hands of the people.
After running a decidedly traditional race for the White House in 2004 and in the early stages of this contest, Mr. Edwards has quietly overhauled his campaign with one central goal: to harness the Internet and the political energy that liberal Democrats are sending coursing through it. In a slow but striking power shift, advisers who champion the political power of the Web have eclipsed the coterie of advisers who long dominated Mr. Edwards’s inner circle, both reflecting and intensifying his transformation into a more populist, aggressive candidate.
“They want me to shut up,†an unsmiling Mr. Edwards said to an audience in Creston, Iowa, on Thursday — remarks that were videotaped by an Edwards campaign worker and posted both on YouTube and the popular liberal Web site MyDD.com. “Let’s distract from people who don’t have health care coverage. Let’s distract from people who can’t feed their children. Let’s talk about this frivolous, nothing stuff.â€
Still, he is in the shadow of Obama and Hillary and he knows it. I think it has a specific effect on Edwards that a lot of people are not noticing – it is making him smarter, more daring and, should I even say this, it has given him a spine.
Could this explain the noticeable shift in Edwards’ rhetoric recently? As Democratic strategist David Sirota said in an interview, what we’re hearing from Edwards these days is a “full-throated populism.”
For instance, aside from the Obama-Clinton flap, the next most significant moment in the YouTube debate came when Edwards said:
“Do you believe that compromise, triangulation will bring about big change. I don’t. I think the people who are powerful in Washington – big insurance companies, big drug companies, big oil companies – they are not going to negotiate. They are not going to give away their power. The only way they are going to give away their power is if we take it away from them.”
Yep, that is USDA Grade “A,” organic, grain-fed, free-range SPINE with no GMO’s or antibiotics. That could catch on.
Does Hillary know why Edwards is smiling?
click to enlarge…
My issue with Edwards is the same as it is with all politicians: He seems to talk big, he seems to have all of these plans. He talks the talk…but will he deliver? Will his actions back up his words? Will he walk the walk?
It is one thing to get up and say “…The only way they are going to give away their power is if we take it away from them.†But it is something totally different to actually get up and DO it.
I will be downright honest…I am anti-Hillary. She has done, influenced and said too much about soldiers while I was serving to leave a perminant bad taste in my mouth. She can burn in hell for all I care. I would rather sit on my ass than let her have anything that remotely sounds like my vote.
Obama intrigues me. This is mostly because not only is he a minority, but he is also a new player to the field. His ideas and what he has to say and offer are interesting. Of course, he also falls into the same problem I have with Edwards: He talks the talk…but will he walk the walk?
Obama at least has no prior recordwith me, so I have nothing to compare him to…while Edwards has to combat his laughable campaign with Kerry. That alone is a difficult, almost Herculenian task inof itself.
Looking back, there was a LOT of conflict between Kerry and Edwards on how the campaign should be conducted and even policy. They damn near came to blows over Ohio.
Yeah, can Edwards deliver? Would be be as ineffectual and dishonest as Bush? Not unless he is Satan.
That said, I can’t dump all of Kerry’s blunders on Edwards.
Edwards did nothing–nothing at ALL– for his constituents in North Carolina when he was senator, and on the big choices liek the war in Iraq, he made wrong choices. He gave up a safe Democratic seat in the senate to pursue power, and that has been his only real mantra (besides the two Americas rhetoric he spouts) since he entered the public arena. His evangelical roots are the same as Dumbya’s, and he echoes the same religious bigotry when talking of being uncomfortable with gays. Don’t trust this guy.
I find it hard to believe that there will be someone as ineffective and dishonest as Bush in office in the near future…but that doesn’t necessarily mean much.
I will be honest and state that I was not paying much attention while Kerry was on the campaign trail. The reason being was that I was more concerned about not getting blown up, shot or worse…all while enjoying sun, fun and guns of Al Taji, Iraq.
What I do remember though, is that a lot of the soldiers in my company disliked and distrusted Bush, but Kerry downright scared them. They knew what sort of evil and idiocy they could expect from BushCo. Kerry was a totally different kettle of worms, especially since he couldn’t even make up his mind on some simple issues. It became very much the “Evil you know versus the Evil that you don’t.” situation.
Even if Edwards has disagreed with Kerry on things, even if he has a new and interesting way of doing things…the problem that at one time his name was attached to John Kerry. That alone may cause many Americans to completely overlook him in favor of Obama.
I am not suggesting that Edwards is a poor choice mind you! I am illustrating some of the issues with the people that he will have to get around if he is to be of any real competition.
I will say this though: Edwards would get my vote well before Hillary would. Edwards would also get my vote before any of the GOP canidates would as well. As unimpressive as Edwards is to me…he is more impressive than anything the GOP has put up.
John Edwards walks the walk – while other candidates talk the talk.
No other candidate has walked miles with union workers placing minimum wage on ballots in 6 states last year – and all passed!
No other candidate has stood beside workers AT their plants – calling for better working conditions.
No other candidate has called for an increase in taxes on corporations that take U.S. jobs overseas.
John Edwards has the most detailed and comprehensive plans and solutions that benefit the working poor and middle class – solutions opposed by the corporate media and their corporate sponsors.
Our entire family is supporting Edwards!
Good God! Al Taji? Jeez, some of the soldiers I sent care packages to sent me some notes on that particular shit hole.
As to the baggage issue, I hear a lot of Hillary supporters telling me things like Vince Foster, the Rose Law Firm, Whitewater and who knows what all else, won’t be brought up during the campaign.
What? Huh? They must be delusional. Everything for every candidate will be brought up and driven into the ground.
Yeah, I was at Taji from March 2004 to March 2005. When I got there it was a complete and total mess, but by the time I left, it looked a hundred times better, boasting one of the largest, best stocked PXs and best chow-halls outside of the Green Zone.
Whether or not this is still the case, I couldn’t tell you. It would not surprise me if things went to shit though, because when I was there we were maing a lot of genuine positive progress to the point that I actually believed in what we were doing. It was not until I got back in the states and saw how things changed from good to ass in less than 6 months that I began to have my doubts.
Even though Hillary supporters and her political groups wont bring up Whitewater, Vince Foster and whatever else…does not mean that her opponents won’t. She will have to combat those hurdles…just as Edwards will have to battle his association with Kerry.
But I expect this…every single bit of dirty laundry and skeleton will be pulled by their toenails into the open kicing and screaming before the primaries. It will only get worse for the 2008 election as well.
Oh, did you get that E-Mail I sent you earlier today?
I figure that you get a lot of E-Mail on a daily basis…but the subjectmatter of mine may be of interest to you.